compiling pale moon on linux

# Compiling Pale Moon on Linux

Though the process of compiling Pale Moon on Linux is the same as Firefox, the documentation on MDN is lacking. This post will just clarify a few points:

## Build prerequisites

(Original document: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Mozilla/Developer_guide/Build_Instructions/Linux_Prerequisites)

### Hardware

At least 4GB RAM, and more swap area the better. It is possible to compile even with 1.5GB of RAM, and ~3GB of swap area, but this significantly slows down the compilation process.

### Build tools and dependencies

Note:

- Some Mozilla docs mention that CentOS 5 is used; but for some reason I doubt this -- if it were truly so then Firefox would run on a greater number of platforms. Or perhaps I'm wrong. Personally, I use a CentOS 6.5 VM.
- The bootstrap.py script does not work on CentOS, because it references a few package groups that do not exist.
- Updating things should not be done at all until absolutely necessary, for example, to satisfy dependencies.

For future versions of Pale Moon, please have a look over about:buildconfig of the corresponding version of FF; it contains important hints (versions of compilers, switches etc.)

First of all, we need to install the necessary packages using the following commands:

	yum install autoconf213 yasm mesa-libGL-devel alsa-lib-devel libXt-devel gstreamer-devel gstreamer-plugins-base-devel pulseaudio-libs-devel
	yum groupinstall 'Development Tools' 'GNOME Software Development'

However, if you want to save on data, you can correspond the list of packages with the list provided for Debian/Ubuntu. I did this to some extent, but it is simply not worth the time.

The Mozilla build process also requires Python 2.7, which you can install using the instructions [here](http://toomuchdata.com/2014/02/16/how-to-install-python-on-centos/). In short:

	yum install zlib-dev openssl-devel sqlite-devel bzip2-devel # dependencies
	wget http://www.python.org/ftp/python/2.7.6/Python-2.7.6.tar.xz
	tar -xf Python-2.7.6.tar.xz cd Python-2.7.6
	./configure --prefix=/usr/local
	make
	make altinstall # don't use make install, this will replace the system python!

Throw in setuptools, pip and virtualenv along with that:

	wget https://bitbucket.org/pypa/setuptools/raw/bootstrap/ez_setup.py
	python2.7 ez_setup.py
	easy_install-2.7 pip
	pip2.7 install virtualenv # not really sure if virtualenv is needed

The development tools on CentOS are old, so let's install newer ones:

	cd /etc/yum.repos.d
	wget http://people.centos.org/tru/devtools-1.1/devtools-1.1.repo
	yum install devtoolset-1.1-{gcc,gcc-c++,binutils,elfutils}

## Compiling Pale Moon from source

build.sh:

	#!/bin/bash

	if [ ! -d "pmsrc" ] || [ ! -d "pmbuild" ] || [ ! -f "mozconfig.txt" ] ; then
	  echo "Check the directories and files!"
	  exit 1
	fi

	cp mozconfig.txt pmsrc/.mozconfig
	cd pmsrc/

	echo "Build?"
	read -n 1 ch

	if [ "$ch" == "y" ] ; then
	  make -f client.mk build &> /dev/stdout | tee buildlog.txt
	  if [ ${PIPESTATUS[0]} == 0 ]; then
		cd "../pmbuild"
		make package
	  fi
	else
	  echo "Compilation aborted."
	fi

mozconfig.txt (used in PM4Linux 24.*):

	ac_add_options --enable-official-branding
	export MOZILLA_OFFICIAL=1

	mk_add_options MOZ_CO_PROJECT=browser
	ac_add_options --enable-application=browser

	mk_add_options MOZ_OBJDIR=/home/a2g/pmbuild/

	ac_add_options --disable-crashreporter
	ac_add_options --disable-accessibility
	ac_add_options --disable-parental-controls
	ac_add_options --disable-webrtc
	ac_add_options --disable-logging
	ac_add_options --disable-necko-wifi
	ac_add_options --disable-installer
	ac_add_options --disable-updater
	ac_add_options --disable-websms-backend

	ac_add_options --disable-tests
	ac_add_options --disable-mochitests
	ac_add_options --disable-debug
	ac_add_options --disable-debug-symbols

	ac_add_options --enable-strip
	ac_add_options --enable-jemalloc
	ac_add_options --enable-optimize="-O3 -msse2 -mfpmath=sse"

	ac_add_options --enable-safe-browsing
	ac_add_options --enable-url-classifier
	ac_add_options --enable-chrome-format=omni

	ac_add_options --x-libraries=/usr/lib

- Download the latest version of Pale Moon and extract the source.
- Set permissions by using `chmod -R 777 pmsrc/`.
- Run `scl enable devtoolset-1.1 ./build.sh`.

A palemoon*.tar.bz2 will await you in the `pmbuild` folder after the compilation completes.

## PM4Linux installer

Compiling and packaging the installer is covered in the README file. In short:

	./compile [address, default=pm4linux.sourceforge.net]

Short explanation of what each component does:

- `bin` - contains binaries that are not generally installed on a standard Linux install.
  - `<arch>/` - binaries specific to each architecture
    - `yad` - GUI dialog program
- `tools/` - contains shell scripts required by the installer.
  - `gwget` - rudimentary graphical frontend for wget
  - `runasroot` - graphical frontend for sudo (will not use su if sudo is not found, user must manually use `su -c ./pminstaller.sh`).
- `files/` - additional files not bundled in the `palemoon-*.tar.bz2` package
  - `palemoon.desktop` - menu entry
  - `palemoon` - shell script to launch palemoon; allows for user customisation (see plugin related threads on the forum)
- `userdocs/` - contains README to be bundled in `pminstaller-*.tar.bz2`.
- `compile` - shell script to generate the installer bundle.
- `bash_obfus.plx` - shell script minifier.
- `installer.sh` - handles installation, uninstallation and upgrades of Pale Moon
- `sfx.sh` - shell script to handle extraction of compressed data.

pminstaller.sh:
+--------------------------------------------+
| <-----minified contents of sfx.sh----->    |
| xz-compressed tar data:                    |
| +----------------------------------------+ |
| | installer.sh                           | |
| | bin/                                   | |
| |     i686/                              | |
| |          yad                           | |
| |     [...]                              | |
| | tools/                                 | |
| |       gwget                            | |
| |       runasroot                        | |
| | files/                                 | |
| |       palemoon.desktop                 | |
| |       palemoon                         | |
| +----------------------------------------+ |
+--------------------------------------------+

Additional notes:
- If something is not working quite right, try doing a build without the minifier.
- You'd probably never want to retain ownership data in the tar archives; please use `tar --numeric-owner --group=0 --owner=0` unless you know what you're doing!
- A one liner to disassemble the installer and to inspect its contents:

    tail -n +$(grep 7zXZ pminstaller.sh --binary-files=text -n | grep --binary-files=text -Eo '^[0-9]+') pminstaller.sh | tar -xJf - -C contents/